Will Ben Simmons Force His Way to the Lakers? It's Happened Before
By Jason McIntyre
Before the 2015 NBA draft, as the the stock for 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis soared – remember the hype? – a funny thing happened: His agent wouldn’t let the 76ers near him. The Knicks were drafting 4th, but there was some concern the Lakers might take him 2nd or the 76ers could select him 3rd.
The Lakers settled on D'Angelo Russell 2nd, but no matter how badly the 76ers wanted to take the Latvian 3-point shooter, they couldn’t. The agent for Porzingis refused to give Philadelphia his physical, wouldn’t let them have a face-to-face meeting, and didn’t grant them a private workout. This is how ugly it got:
"After most of the pro day executives cleared out of the gym in Vegas in mid-June, 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie lingered to meet with Miller. Hinkie stopped him in the lobby area and asked Miller about a chance to sit down and visit with Porzingis. “You said that I would get a meeting with him here,” Hinkie told Miller. “I said, ‘I’d try,’ and it’s not going to work out, Sam,” Miller responded. An awkward silence lingered, the GM and agent, standing and staring. The Porzingis camp wanted no part of the Sixers’ situation at No 3. Miller couldn’t stop Philadelphia from drafting Porzingis, but he could limit the information they had to make a decision."
You’ll hear plenty about how NBA players can build brands in any city now thanks to social media, and that’s true. But mostly, this applies to free agents. Here’s why agents have always wanted to steer their elite prospects to the better markets at the draft: Sneaker money and marketing abilities early in their career when the players are still making small money on the court.
It happened with Kobe Bryant in 1996. (The Calipari bluff is legendary.) In 1999, Steve Francis announced he did not want to play for the Vancouver Grizzlies, who held the #2 pick in 1999. They drafted him. It got ugly. They traded Francis before his rookie season began. There’s Porzingis last year.
It happens.
Would it really shock you if Ben Simmons – who before the season was on snapchat talking about playing for the Lakers – and his agent said they didn’t want him on a historically bad team, and instead, they wanted him in LA? The sneaker deal money could be eight figures, for starters.
What would Philadelphia do? What could they do?
The answer, of course, is nothing … except draft Brandon Ingram, which wouldn’t be totally bad given their situation.